When you sew your gifts for giving, it can sometimes be difficult to think of gifts to make for men. Especially your brother, who you love so much and to whom you always want to give extra special gifts. Your brother may be the kind of guy who likes everything high tech, or who “has everything.”
But chances are your brother, or any other male you love and want to make something special for, could certainly use more handkerchiefs. In this day and age, I have discovered that a great many guys who think they “have everything” do not own even one handkerchief!
And one is certainly not enough! If you make handkerchiefs as a gift, you will want to make several. I am partial to giving a set of 7, one for each day of the week. They can never have too many either.
So, help your brother (or anyone else) to save trees by using fabric, which will also save his nose from much irritation. Nothing beats a flannel hankie for softness!
Materials needed:
Soft cotton fabric, about 1 yard
OR, instead
a sheet, T-shirts, well worn and loved pajamas, flannel shirts, etc to repurpose
or
blank” white handkerchiefs, purchased at a dollar store or online
fabric dye OR embroidery threads and needle
By far, the easiest way to make handkerchiefs is using a serger. You will want to cut them to a generous size, at least 12″ square. As I said, thin flannel is an excellent choice, but you are not limited by this. Any cotton fabric might work nicely. Younger brothers might appreciate handkerchiefs made from a novelty print fabric, maybe baseball or football, or even his favorite cartoon character.
You can also make this gift even “greener” by repurposing some other cloth item at the end of its useful life, such as sheets or T-shirts. My husband, for example, particularly loves his hankies I made from his favorite pajama pants that were too old and worn to wear as jammies anymore. I also made him “work handkerchiefs” by cutting up his stained work t-shirts; it amuses him to blow his nose on the company logo!
To make handkerchiefs on the serger, which must be the absolute simplest sewing project possible, you simply cut your chosen fabric square to size, and just run all four sides under the serger, using the rolled hem setting. Dab fray check on the thread tails, let dry, snip…and you are done!
If you haven’t gotten your serger yet, there are other ways to make handkerchiefs as gifts. You can make them on the sewing machine by either hemming all 4 sides, or by sewing them “2-ply.” To sew them this way, just cut 2 layers to your desired size, and stack them with right sides together. Sew all four sides, leaving about a 3″ section in the middle of one side open, for turning. Clip corners and turn. Use a point presser or chopstick to push the corners out neatly, then press. Then, simply sew closed the opening and topstitch all around.
You could also do what I did before I learned to sew, which is buy inexpensive plain “blank” handkerchiefs and personalize them. One way you can personalize these hankies is using embroidery- you could stitch his initials or try your hand at a more complicated design, such as his favorite car. Or how about stitching “bless you” on his handkerchief? What a sweet gift from a sister!
Another option that may be easier for you than embroidery, is one of my favorite techniques, tie-dye. You can experiment with folding the hankies different ways, as well as just bunching and balling them up and tying. I use thin rubber bands for the tie part of my tie-dying. Wet the handkerchiefs, and immerse in your dye bath. You could use inexpensive and readily available Rit dyes, or for a more satisfying result, use cold water dyes, available at your craft store or online.
So make up a soft stack of hankies soon. It won’t take you much time at all, and you will enjoy the effort. And your brother (and forests) will be blessed by you every time he blows his nose!
Don’t stop making gifts when you are done- here is a list of Easy Gifts to Sew for Anyone.
